When millionaire neighbours go to war.

Enjoying a summer's lunch in the back garden of his nephew's London home, David Attenborough surveyed the scene with an eye that has earned him a reputation as one of the world's leading naturalists.

While the vista may have lacked the drama of the open oceans and wildernesses that are his normal hunting grounds, the canopy of trees and greenery lent the scene an undeniable beauty and charm.

But his sense of contentment did not last long. To his horror, Michael Attenborough, son of David's late brother Richard, the famous actor and filmmaker, informed him that moves were afoot that would see this corner of the capital changed

forever.

Plans had been submitted by his next-door neighbour to erect a four-bedroom house in his back garden, he revealed.

Not only would it sit just yards away from the home in which Michael Attenborough and his wife had lived for almost 30 years, but it would also involve the felling of eight trees that bordered it.

This, despite the fact that the properties sit in a Conservation Area established to protect the character of this leafy Victorian suburb in Chiswick, West London.